NRDC Action Fund Launches Campaign Warning Congressional Climate Deniers: Don’t Poison our Children’s Future

NRDC Action Fund Launches Campaign Warning Congressional Climate Deniers: Don’t Poison our Children’s Future

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Melissa Harrison, NRDC Action Fund, 202-513-6278/614-203-2616, [email protected]

Online Ad Campaign Supports President Obama’s Climate & Clean Air Plan

WASHINGTON (July 30, 2013) The NRDC Action Fund is launching an online advertising campaign today to galvanize opposition to any efforts to derail President Obama’s climate and clean air plan.

The digital campaign will include a 30-second ad, which can be viewed at: http://bit.ly/17NwAI0  and reads, “If every Senator threatening to vote against the President’s clean air and climate plan knew what it was like to be a child suffering a severe asthma attack, maybe they’d think twice.  After all, it’s kind of hard to do anything with a nebulizer wrapped around your face.  When we protect the air from carbon pollution, we protect children’s lives.”

The campaign also includes banner ads on websites including the WashingtonPost.com and Politico.com that will run from July 30 through August 2. The banner ads portray children wearing breathing respirators with the text, “The Cost of Climate Change…Tell the U.S. Senate: Don’t Poison Our Children’s Future.”

“Despite the scientific facts, the impacts on children and families across America, and the growing support for taking action to address climate change, the denier extremists are in full swing as they head back to their districts for the August recess,” said Heather Taylor-Miesle, NRDC Action Fund Director. “Unfortunately, these deniers remain out of step with their constituents, and particularly young people from both major parties, who believe we have an obligation to protect future generations from climate change. Our online campaign is designed to put Congress on notice that their constituents are watching. We will hold them accountable if they try to block the president’s plan– a common-sense, practical proposal that has the public’s support.”

Many in the U.S. Senate have been positioning proposals and amendments to stop EPA from taking action to reduce carbon pollution. Behind-the-scenes maneuvers reached a peak this week in the course of negotiations over the bipartisan energy efficiency bill introduced by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH), which many now expect to see final votes on in September. Their bill attracted climate change deniers who are seeking to hijack a widely supported bill to push their political agenda.

Recent public opinion research by Democratic and Republican aligned firms has shown strong support for cutting the carbon pollution from power plants that fuels climate change and extreme weather, diminishes air quality and threatens health.  Sixty-five percent of Americans support setting limits on the dangerous carbon pollution from power plants, including 49% of Republicans and 84% of Democrats and 56% of independents, according to a July 2013 national survey conducted by Hart Research and Chesapeake Beach Consulting for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

A separate poll by Benenson Strategy Group and GS Strategy Group found that “young voters of both parties want to see action on climate change and want leaders willing to take steps to address that threat… widespread and intense support translates into a willingness to punish legislators who stand in the way of the President’s plan… and to support those who back it.”

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The goal of the NRDC Action Fund is to grow the environmental majority across America. The Action Fund is growing power in the places that always matter around the country, so that together we can protect public health and the environment. www.nrdcactionfund.org

Note to reporters/editors: The NRDC Action Fund is an affiliated but separate organization from the Natural Resources Defense Council. As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, the NRDC Action Fund engages in various advocacy and political activities for which the Natural Resources Defense Council, a 501(c)(3) organization, faces certain legal limitations or restrictions. News and information released by the NRDC Action Fund needs to be identified as from the “NRDC Action Fund.” The “Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund” is incorrect. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the NRDC Action Fund cannot be used interchangeably.  Also please note that the word “National” does not appear in Natural Resources Defense Council.